Very chocolatey cookies

I have a strong suspicion that I already wrote this recipe up somewhere, but I can't find it, so here it is again. The proportions got gradually modified over the years and the result is now much more chocolatey, so it not completely the same anyway. The "original recipe" was found in one of the blogs under livejournal umbrella; there it said that it was copied (also modified, I think) from a book.

Anyway, here it is as I make them now.

Pancakes-2: Got it right :)

Last time I wrote about pancakes, I was complaining abut how I couldn't find kefir here. Since then I discovered the food court of El Corte Inglés. I don't know why I didn't check it out earlier, I guess I have a blind spot for basement departments.

Point is, they do have kefir. They have a good range of products from the Pastoret company and kefir is one of them.

So, here is another recipe and another set of pictures. As you can (hopefully) see, they are thick, fluffy, uniform in texture and have a very mild flavor, so can be used with both sweet and savory toppings. (Our older son prefers sweet, and the younger one savory).

Because of the way they rise and then keep their volume, the amount I end up making is always high, but they go really fast, there is so much air in them.

Apple cake “sharlotka”

I might be completely wrong, but I think this cake, or variation on it, is known to pretty much everybody in Russia. It is simple to make and tasty to eat.

We call it “sharlotka” (шарлотка), but, curiously, it has almost nothing to do with the apple charlotte. Apart from the apples, that is.

It is one of these strange situations when recipe changes dramatically, sometimes beyond recognition, but the name stays. Like Spanish “Russian salad” with olives and tuna, both not-at-all most common ingredients in Russia.